1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to the information provided to the audience of all levels of basketball games: preparatory school, high school, junior college, collegiate, Olympic, semi-professional, and professional basketball leagues. The field of the instant invention is also not limited to basketball games in the United States of America, but includes games played under rules promulgated by international basketball governing authorities.
2. Background
Basketball is a game played indoors on a wooden court with five players from two teams attempting to score the most points by throwing or tossing a ball, commonly called shooting the ball, into a basketball goal. The position of the player on the court ultimately determines the point value of successfully shooting the ball into and through the basketball goal. Painted permanently onto the wooden basketball court is curve that is fixed distance from the from the basketball goal (19 feet, 9 inches for high school level and for the collegiate level; and 23 feet, 9 inches for the National Basketball Association; other distances will apply for other basketball governing organizations), this painted curve is termed the three-point line. A player who is located between the three-point line and the goal and who successfully shoots a goal earns two points for his or her team. If a player is located behind the three-point line (the three point line is between the goal and the player) when shooting the basketball towards the goal, and the goal is successful, the player""s team receives three points. Under current rules of basketball, one or more referees in the game signal the awarding of the three points by holding both arms straight and vertically above the head. Currently, this and the resulting addition of three points to the team""s score on a scoreboard are the only official signals of completion of a three-point shot.
The purpose of the instant invention is to provide an audible or additional visual signal to the audience of the basketball game of the successful completion of the three-point shot that will complement the visual signal provided by the referees of the game.
Broadly speaking, the instant invention provides a method and apparatus for increasing the enjoyment of basketball games by the audience by indicating when a three-point shot has been successful. In addition, the invention provides feedback to the game officials, players and coaches that the three-point shot has been successful. Furthermore, the invention provides assistance to television and radio commentators identifying successful three-point shots. Finally, the invention provides opportunities for advertisements.
The instant invention uses a unique sound to signal the audience of a basketball game that a player has successfully completed a three-point shot. One example of a unique sound that can be employed is one comprised of the musical notes: E-G-C. These three musical notes can be produced by any tone-generating device such as, but not limited to, acoustic instruments, electronic instruments or electronic music synthesizers. However, this three note sequence, although it is disclosed in one of the preferred embodiments of the instant invention should not be meant to limit the range of choices available for unique tones or notes to be sounded.
In one preferred embodiment, the instant invention is comprised of a sound-producing card enclosed in a plastic housing. The plastic housing contains connections for a standard audio cable for connection to the arena or stadium public address system. The plastic housing contains a hole through which a play switch or button is inserted to activate the sound-producing card. The game official responsible for the three-point notification presses the button to generate the sound. The plastic housing also contains a 9 Volt regulator power pack to energize the sound card in the plastic housing which is powered by standard 10 V AC current. Holes are also provided in the plastic enclosure for light emitting diodes to indicate status of power and record/playback mode.
The sound card is designed to record, store, and playback digital sound. It is a self-contained unit that only requires a +9 Volt power source, typically a wall transformer, and an external amplifier/speaker system to provide the amplified sound.
Recordings are stored in non-volatile memory cells providing protected, no-power recording storage. Up to 20 seconds of sound can be stored. The sampling rate is 6.4 kHz with a band pass filter set at 2.6 kHz, providing high-quality audio reproduction. Recorded sounds have a typical 100-year retention and over 100,000 new recordings can be performed. Sound is output at standard audio line level (1V peak-to-peak).
The onboard controls allow for recording and playback in development mode. An external playback switch connection point is provided for user control. Light emitting diodes indicate record/playback mode and unit power status. User playback is initiated simply by pressing the external play switch. Although additional presses of the play switch while the unit is playing the pre-recorded sound have no effect, once the sound is completed it can be immediately started again by pressing the play switch.
Additional features include test points on the power rails and record input and line-level output adjustment potentiometers provided for fine-tuning the signal levels.